Jimmie Johnson may be NASCAR’s “Nice Guy,” but his corporate vanilla personality has done the unthinkable.
It’s made NASCAR fans actually consider rooting for Jeff Gordon.
For the second season in a row, it appears that Johnson has found the key at just the right time that will drive him to the NASCAR Nextel Cup title. And with nine wins, including the last three in a row, a strong case can be made that he is once again NASCAR’s best driver.
For most of the 2007 season, however, it looked like Gordon was NASCAR’s best and he was on pace to win his fifth Cup championship, but his first since 2001.
At 36 years old, Gordon has matured into the total package.
He looks like a champion, acts like a winner, is probably the most articulate driver in the garage area and understands his obligation to the sport, whether it be cooperating with the media or signing autographs for fans.
Usually, when Gordon speaks, he says something interesting.
Johnson has many of those same qualities but far too often seems like a creation from the corporate boardroom. He says the right things all the time, while Gordon has shown flashes of peevishness, which only adds a little character to his persona.
“I’m just mad that we sucked tonight, that’s all,” Gordon said after finishing seventh Sunday night. “The car was good at the end. We just couldn’t ever get it right earlier in the night. I’m disappointed with that.”
There was a time when Gordon bore a striking resemblance to the cartoon character Speed Racer.
Johnson looks more like Dave Matthews but probably can’t carry a tune.
These are the only two NASCAR drivers left who have a legitimate shot at winning the title with two races remaining, and they are both teammates at Hendrick Motorsports.
One day, Johnson may reach the same status that Gordon enjoys but Sunday’s win in the Dickie’s 500 was Johnson’s 32nd in the Cup series.
Gordon, meantime, has 81 victories and is closing in on some of NASCAR’s legendary names, such as Cale Yarborough’s 83 victories and Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip, each with 84.
Gordon was so good at such an early age at the beginning of his career that the fans developed a hatred for the talented driver from Vallejo, Calif., who honed his racing skills by living his teenage years in Pittsboro, Ind., as a star in the United States Auto Club.
The fans didn’t like Gordon because he just wasn’t “one of us.”
Today, fans still boo Gordon, but most of them have probably forgotten why they booed him in the first place.
So when Gordon entered Sunday’s race with a nine-point lead over Johnson, it was a razor-thin margin. Gordon finished seventh and with Johnson’s win, he lost the point lead and now trails by 30 points with two races left.
“Thirty isn’t much,” Gordon said. “The biggest thing right now is that we’re just getting beat and those guys are winning races. We’ve got to put some pressure back on them and outperform them. We thought our qualifying run (second fastest on Friday) was going to get us the track position we needed but we just couldn’t maintain it. Phoenix is a good track for us and we’ll go there and fight hard just like we did tonight.
“Hopefully, we can get those points back.”
Gordon believes his teammate is “spanking us.” That’s what upsets him the most.
“They’re putting it to us,” Gordon said. “I don’t like it. We’re very competitive and we’re just getting beat. Those guys have done an excellent job coming from behind when we won those couple races and now here they are with three in a row and they’re on a great roll. We’ve got to answer back. That’s all there is to it.”